<BillNo> <Sponsor>

HOUSE BILL 1306

By Turner

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 3,

Chapter 1, Part 1, relative to unsolved civil rights
crimes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 3, Chapter 1, Part 1, is amended by

adding the following language as a new section:

(a) The general assembly shall create a special joint committee to study issues

relating to the investigation and prosecution of unsolved civil rights crimes and cold

cases from the civil rights era.

(b) The committee shall make recommendations concerning the desirability of a

statutorily established commission or other appropriate means to conduct investigations

and prosecutions of these heinous civil rights crimes that may still take place.

(c) The special joint committee shall consist of three (3) members of the house

of representatives and three (3) members of the senate, to be appointed by the

respective speakers.

(d) All appropriate state agencies shall provide assistance to the special joint

committee upon request of the chair.

(e) All legislative members of the special joint committee who are duly elected

members of the general assembly shall remain members of such committee until the

committee reports its findings and recommendations to the general assembly.

(f) The special joint committee shall be convened by the member with the most

years of continuous service in the general assembly, and at its first meeting shall elect a

chair, vice chair, and such other officers the committee deems necessary.

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 (g) The special joint committee shall timely report its findings and

recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the general assembly no later

than January 15, 2018, at which time the committee shall cease to exist.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring

it.

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